In Star Wars: The Old Republic on the bounty hunter / imperial agent starting planet of Hutta is a cantina which is part of Nem'ro the Hutt's palace. In that cantina is a table with two non-player characters facing each other: Hun Duo and Greepo. I wonder which of the two will shoot first.
- posted by Tobold Stoutfoot @ 9:24 AM Permanent Link
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A couple tables away there's a wookie playing cards with a protocol droid... and he has torn it's arms off (as well as the head, that droid is pretty much done for).

On a larger level though the whole "just like Star Wars" vibe is nonsense. Everything is technologically and culturally frozen. It's as if we somehow magically travelled back to Ancient Egypt and found them using iphones and playing WoW.

Haha I know you're joking, but don't you think theirs a sliiight difference between The Old Republic's references to the Star Wars Films... and WoW's references to all aspects of real life popular culture?!

It's interesting to consider this feature in the context of Raph Koster's recent comments about Immersion. Basically the designers broke immersion to put in a fairly crappy in-joke for Star Wars nerds.

That ties in with what Raph is saying, that essentially no one making AAA MMOs cares in the slightest about immersion these days.

I mean, admittedly, it gets harder to be immersed in fiction as you grow older anyway, but I feel like very rarely have I been challenged as far as immersion goes. I don't know if I am just unnaturally able to suspend disbelief or if some people just need a MASSIVE amount of help to stay immersed.

...and I realize this comment sounds awful, but I just don't understand these complaints.

Clearly the game would have been improved if they were generic NPCs with utterly forgettable, nonsense names like XLkjhdfif and Loohhajn. Or even better: NPCs with no names at all!

To be honest, if you are looking for immersion in an MMO, you are looking in the entirely wrong genre of game. Or have you closed General Chat and erased the memory of that flashpoint run with XxBobaFettxX and company?

I picture these guys that take immersion to the nth level dressed up in robes or Star Wars gear with a light sabor next to them while playing the game.

And Stabes you don't think that in 3-4000 years there could never be a smuggler being threatened by a bounty hunter twice in the whole galaxy? I suggest you see how the mob or any drug organization repeats itself and does the same thing every few months.